Huntsville gazette., 1887-08-06
VOTING ON PROHIBITION.
THE WHOLE STATE OF TEXAS IN
DULGE IN THE STRUGGLE.

An Interesting Election in Which Both
Sides Claim = NIajority-The First South
ern State to Vote on tho Ouestion.-The
Outcome Of the Fight in Doubt.
DALLAS, Tex, Aug. 5.-When the polls
were opened this morning and this long line
of voters who had been waiting since day
light commenced to deposit their votes, the
final struggle of the most notable prohi-
bition contest that the south has yet seen
had been commenced. The campaign has
been an exciting one 1t has split the polit-
ical parties and prohibition and anti-Pro-
hibition Republicans, and Prohibition and
anti-Prohib;tion Democrats have taken the
stump against each other. Public feeling ON
the subject throughout the state has been
intense, and it will not be surprising if
trouble should arise at the polls in many
localities
From al oratorical point Of view, the
campaign has been most brilliant one, the
Prohibition champions having included such
well known men and able takers as ex-Sen-
ator Mexey, Congressman Lanham and
Culberson, Lieutenant Governors Martin
and Storey ex-Congressm sman Herndon, SEN
ator-elect John II. Reagan, and a score of
state senators and representatives. On the
side Of the liquor element there has been ar
raigned Governor Ross, ex-Governors
Throckmorton II Juston and Ireland Con-
gresslnen Mills and Kilgore and Speaker
Pendleton. Still another faction, belonging
to the influential Democrats, and headed by
Senator Coke and Chairman Hall, of the
State Democratic Central committee, has
held aloof, on the ground that the question
is social one, and ought not to be brought
into state politics.
The outcome of the fight is involved in
doubt. The anti ti-Prohibitionists claim that
they will have majority of Is, 900, while
the temperance people figure up that they
will be 10000 on the right side. Considering
the fact that last fall the total vote of the
state was nearly 10000, these close figures
will indicate how intense has been the fight.
The temperance people have nucleus Of 49,
900 votes to start with, and they depend upon
this for victory. The fight moreover, is Of
national Importance, from the fact that this
is the first state in the south in which an
effort has been made to win it over bodily
to temperance. Hitherto they have endeav-
ored to effect their purpose under local
option laws, as in Kansas, Iowa and Georgia
In this contest, however, the north ern plan
of endeavoring to capture the entire state
has been adopted as a result it is said, of
the advice of northern Prohibitionists
Leading representatives Of the latter who
are now here say that the victory in Texas
means victory in Tennessee next month, and
that the fight will then be carried into Ala
bana, North Corolina, Georgia and Missis-
sippi Both parties have spent considera-
BILE amount of money in the campaign, while
the Prohibitionists have been reinforced
with the prayers Of the Women's Christian
Temperance union, which were offered up
all over the country on Sunday last The
Labor men are in the main for temperance,
Powderly's anti-rum circular and the efforts
of the Farmers alliance being the controll-
ing influences. Altogether the fight is an in
teresting one, and when the sun went down
last night Texas had decided whether
hereafter she is to be enrolled in tho Prohi-
bitiOn column